The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said on the 31st that it expressed the view to the chair of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) that the mandatory start date for ESG (environmental, social and governance) disclosures should be moved up by one year from 2028 to 2027.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also said the scope of ESG disclosures should be expanded from corporations with "30 trillion won or more in consolidation assets aggregates" to those with "10 trillion won or more in consolidation assets aggregates."
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) assessed that "with ESG disclosures being rapidly institutionalized worldwide, if Korea's disclosure regime lags behind the international trend or its scope is limited to ultra-large corporations, it could negatively affect credibility, access to information, comparability and transparency."
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also said human rights indicators should be included in ESG disclosures, which are currently designed with a priority on climate. The commission said, "Even if, for practical reasons, the mandatory climate disclosure is introduced first, the schedule for mandating disclosures in the social field, including human rights, should be specified in detail, and in the long term, disclosure systems across all areas of sustainability should be integrated."
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also presented opinions that the timing for converting ESG disclosures into statutory disclosures should be clearly indicated and that efforts should be made to shorten the grace period for "Scope 3," the greenhouse gas emissions generated across the entire corporate value chain (Value Chain·가치사슬).
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said it "plans to continuously review relevant policies and systems so that ESG disclosures can function as a mechanism to promote corporations' responsibility to respect human rights."